Also in attendance was Rolly Teranishi who performed at last year’s Halloween event. Here he sang two songs from the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show in Japanese with a bit of English.

Rolly Teranishi was a member of the Japanese rock band Scanch before going solo. He’s a big fan of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and has played Dr. Frank-N-Furter in Japanese stage versions.

Hoichi the Earless(?) and Pretty Devil enjoy Tokyo Decadance

One of my favorite costumes at the event was the girl dressed up as Hoichi the Earless even though she still had her ears. This is from an old ghost story where a blind biwa player unknowingly played for the ghosts of a defeated samurai clan. In order to save him from eventual destruction, Buddhist priests covered his body in sacred texts but they forget to cover his ears. When a ghost came to fetch Hoichi, the sacred writing prevented him from seeing the biwa player save for his two ears which he ripped from Hoichi’s head.

I was in the Kansai/Nagoya area recently to take in a geisha performance in Kyoto and to tour a castle or two in the Nagoya area.

While I was there I met Maggie and her owner Gimmeabreakman from Youtube. Gimmeabreakman interviewed me on the controversial Tokyo Yamanote Halloween Train which caused quite a bit of furor on the internet. Internet denizens were either up in arms against it or that they missed it.

Here I discuss how overly-demonized the event is and how many people are just experiencing internet faux rage over something that they probably never heard before they saw it on youtube or some other forum

Well, I was out and about looking for yet another Halloween Train set for Halloween itself. I had some misgivings about this one though because:

1) I had already ridden on one on the 25th and made a video on it. I didn’t really feel like making another one though naturally I would have been compelled to do so.

2) It was set on a Friday. Normally in most countries at 9 such a halloween party would not run into much problem but in Tokyo it means commuters going home after late hours. I find that worse than any halloween train party!

Turns out it was a hoax or it’s a hoax of hoax designed to save face because no one showed up. I got a video response by someone claiming they organized the hoax who then put up a video claiming to have footage of the 31st Halloween Train along with complilations of other people’s halloween train videos including mine.

The intro lures the viewer into thinking you’re going to see the “carnage” as the video states then suddenly it switches to – you guessed it! That Rick Astley video – what is up with that BTW? I still don’t understand rickrolling but this one was funny because bits of video from different people’s halloween train videos are put within the video dancing along with the music.

Many years ago a young boy would wait up every Halloween Night in a pumpkin patch he thought sincere enough in the hopes of catching a glimpse of what he called the Great Pumpkin. The Great Pumpkin, according to the boy, was some sort of Halloween spirit that would fly up out of only the sincerest pumpkin patches to give presents to all the attending good little boys and girls. That he never saw the Great Pumpkin in all those years of his childhood, never deterred him. Even as he got older, he would still wait out in a pumpkin patch on Halloween Night looking for the Great Pumpkin.

A Dark Twisted Soul

Though his friends and family thought his yearly vigil was just a harmless belief, in truth Linus Van Pelt was a sick and disturbed individual. He would often fly into an uncontrollable rage whenever anyone would dare mention that the Great Pumpkin possibly did not exist. Linus also began to develop a severe loathing for the Great Pumpkin’s Christmas counterpart: Santa Claus. Like a true religious zealot, he would ridicule any of his childhood friends that professed a belief in Santa Claus.

Linus sees orange when friends mock the existence of the Great Pumpkin

In his college years, Linus Van Pelt began to attract a number of shy gullible girls and awkward young men to join him in his yearly vigil. Over time, the Great Pumpkin’s repeated failure to arrive began to worry the group. “Perhaps their faith wasn’t strong enough?” They thought. “Perhaps they said the word “if” too much? Perhaps their pumpkin patches weren’t sincere enough and had too much hypocrisy?” Such questions plagued the small group for a long time.

Proselytizing The Great Pumpkin Faith

Some members of the group, including their leader, Linus, felt they needed to further convince the Great Pumpkin of their sincerity and devotion. They forbade the word “if” in their daily speech, punishing its use by a severe lashing. They went on pumpkin rescuing parties in an attempt to save pumpkins from being carved into Jack-o-Lanterns.

Linus was traumatized at an early age when he witnessed the annual pumpkin slaughter

On Halloween nights they would leave offerings of food in the hopes of appeasing and enticing the Great Pumpkin to appear. When these efforts didn’t seem to be enough they stepped up to burning effigies of the Great Pumpkin’s arch-enemy: Santa Claus. After a while grisly animal sacrifices were to follow.

Some years earlier, authorities found the bizarre remnants of one such Halloween ritual though at the time they weren’t aware of the cult. In what police described as a seemingly sincere pumpkin patch, they found the grim remains of an old beagle bizarrely dressed in a World War I aviation cap. The dog had apparently been choked to death by some kind of cloth: a towel or a small blanket. Written in black crayon on some pumpkins were the words: “Deceiver“, “False One“, and “Dog Germs“.

Snoopy – Dog and WWI Flying Ace: an early victim of the Great Pumpkin Cult

At this time, Linus Van Pelt was a Philosophy Grad school drop-out. His dissertation entitled: “The Great Pumpkin Manifesto” had been savagely ridiculed by the faculty. One of them even went so far as to say: “Wa-wa, wa-wa, wa-wa-waaaa.” In anger and despair, Linus left the academic world to concentrate on the Great Pumpkin full time.

By now the group had become a full-fledge cult and they took took the last final step into madness. They felt there was too much non-belief in the world and that the power of the Jolly Fat Menace (as they called Santa Claus) held too much sway. They began to perform human sacrifices on those whom the group deemed irreversible non-believers. It is believed that some of the first victims to be ritually slain had actually been childhood acquaintances of Linus’ that had once dared to mock the Great Pumpkin.

An earlier Missing Person’s report that was only later tied in with the cult had been dismissed when it was originally filed. A Charles Brown filed a Missing Person’s report several years prior about his sister Sally Brown. Given Mr. Brown’s long history of psychological problems, chronic depression, and dependency on medication, the report was ignored by local authorities at that time and Mr. Brown was given a rock.

The beginning of a long trend for Brown

It was later learned that Ms. Sally Brown, who had been working as an exotic dancer in Florida before her disappearance, had once ridiculed Linus for talking her into missing Halloween fun one year so they could wait for the Great Pumpkin together. Linus secretly never forgave her and bore bitter resentment for her and her rejection of the Great Pumpkin.

Little did Sally know she was signing her death warrant that fateful night

Eventually everything came to a horrifyingly bloody climax one Halloween night when Pigpen, Linus’ trusted lieutenant, led a group of followers supposedly on orders from Linus to Jim Davis’ house. There they broke in and in an orgy of blood and violence, brutally massacred Garfield, Odie, and John.

The police quickly rounded up the group and Linus. Some of them were still covered in blood. Pigpen was covered in blood and dirt that wouldn’t wash off.

At his trial Linus shocked the court by appearing with a Jack-o-Lantern carved into his forehead. No one could get him to make any sense. He merely rambled incoherently damning unbelievers and Santa Claus.

A few of his more lucid mutterings were:

“…I have loosed the Great Pumpkin and devils into the world to torment Santa Claus and his followers…”

“…I am not the scary monster but only a dark reflection of a society that believes in Santa Claus and kills pumpkins in the name of fun…”

“…mangy mutt pretended to be the Great One…but we showed him, didn’t we?”

“…she laughed at me and at the G.P., she did, my Sally Brown until her sweet baboo put her under the ground…”

Testimony from surviving childhood acquaintances including his estranged sister Lucy Van Pelt, president of the ultra-radical feminist group, “The Society for Cutting Up Blockheads,” was enough to convince the court to sentence Linus Van Pelt to a mental institution for life. Mr. Charles Brown was unable to testify at that time as he was currently in jail for allegedly stalking red-headed girls.

Lucy Van Pelt – Psychologist and President of S.C.U.B.

Now Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin every year in a small padded cell with pumpkins drawn on the walls. This is where he will wait for the rest of his life. He still hasn’t seen the Great Pumpkin but as he tells his unbelieving guards: “Just wait till next year! You’ll see! The Great Pumpkin will rise out of the Pumpkin patch and I’ll be there to see him! Just wait and see!”

The infamous Tokyo Yamanote Halloween Train rode yet once more this year despite fears of police crackdowns and potential violence from frustrated internet nerds. The Tokyo Yamanote Halloween Train is an unofficial semi-traditional event going back over 20 years where foreigners and Japanese in costume party on the Yamanote Train Line which loops through Tokyo.

Now, I’ve ridden this notorious public transportation menace a fair few times (four times as of now), and I must say this time was as nerve-wracking as it was exhilarating. Each time I’ve ridden the Halloween Train, it’s been fun but this time things were a bit more tense than before.

The few, the proud, the loud

Looming over the party atmosphere was the specter of the Akihabara murder-spree this past summer where a deranged man killed seven people with his vehicle and knife. Prior to doing so, he had posted on the internet that he would do so. Akihabara is a mecca for the anime otaku or Japanese animation nerd.

Otaku (nerds/geeks/dorks) are the pariah of Japan. They have been scapegoated for social ills sometimes unfairly and sometimes not. Many are just harmless individuals who just like anime and manga while indulging in a bit of cosplay now and then. These types lack the anger and alienation of other otaku whose behavior rather than their particular obsession sets them apart. The killer Kato Tomohiro is seen as one of these types who finally gave into his dark twisted inner nature.

Tengu – Japanese long-nosed Goblin

Our gathering was small for several reasons. One, there was little advance warning; two, it was rather early for Halloween being the 25th; three, there was worry the police would shut it down and arrest participants; and four, there was fear of violence from 2channel people.

Japan Man takes a Swig

2channel or Nichannel/Nichan is a Japanese internet community that is known for its outspoken members. Because of its complete anonymous nature, it attracts a certain number of individuals who slander and defame businesses, political figures, and celebrities. These individuals are often described as extremely conservative, angry, xenophobic, vindictive, and incapable of functioning in the real world.

In 2007 when certain 2channel members learned about the Halloween Train event, they saw red and plastered websites which mentioned the event with obscenities and violent threats. Japanprobe was hit especially hard as someone had posted an invite there to the Halloween Train and 2chan people assumed Japanprobe was sponsoring the event. Two commentators stood out at the time – one who threaten to blow away the trains and one who said he would go there with a knife.

After the Akihabara tragedy, such threats are no longer passed off as empty threats made by internet nerds who never leave their computer. There is a dark side to the otaku culture of frustrated young men angry at society, with their lives, and with their lack of human contact. Generally lashing out through their online personas is enough for many of them but for some it hasn’t and what Japan may experience is more internet-fueled rages in the real world.

We can’t reach our Beer!

The Halloween Train was packed with police most of them undercover while at the major stations a dozen uniformed police stood waiting. Some of us began to worry our night of merry mayhem would end in a Japanese jail cell and possible deportation. As it turns out, the police were less there because of us but more there because of the potential threat the 2channel users posed.

A Japanese maid chants station names

Due to their hatred for the Halloween Train event some 2channel members actually made the ultimate sacrifice of prying themselves away from their cyber fantasy worlds and entering the cold harsh realm called the real world. They came to our event but they certainly weren’t there to partake in the festivities. One of them tried to make off my bottle of Campari when I offered to him in a gesture of good will. I had to wrestle it out of his hand to get it back.

A police sign telling us not to … do something

The 2channel members were easy to spot as while other passengers just ignored the event going on around them, the 2channel people defiantly ignored the event going on around them. Some of them though harassed Japanese participants of the Halloween Train questioning their love of their home country and other nationalistic jingoism.

The Joker during a serious moment

Heath Ledger’s Joker is a frightening psychotic character and we had a Joker on our train complete with knife (fake). However, one regular-looking 2channel member proved to be far more frightening than our lovable clown-face psycho. When asked by a Halloween Train participant if he liked peace, he replied that he liked war and that he wanted to kill the participant. Immediately, in this packed train, that 2channel fellow found ample space around him as people recoiled in horror. Flashes of AKihabara went through many minds and through it all the placid expression on his face did not change – all the more frightening.

An undercover policeman inquired about the incident and let it be known that they were more here to protect the party participants from the 2channel members. This may strike one as strange that the police would willingly protect an event what some have condemned as hooliganism and even terrorism but one has to understand that this event has been going on for well over 20 years. It happens once a year (usually) and in recent times lasts only an hour or so. The worse that happens is some lights are turned off and some people get on the luggage rack.

Hey, Mom! I’m on the Tokyo Yamanote Halloween Train!

On the other side of the equation we have this subculture of embittered socially-awkward young men with chips on their shoulders who after the Akihabara incident are capable of doing far worse than turn off a few lights. Reportedly in 2007 after the Halloween Train event which started in Shinjuku and had police and otaku alike some party participants were beaten afterwards.

As for the Halloween Train, it was a bit more low key than previous ones but we did our usual station chanting. Hamamatsucho Station, however, defeated our best efforts. It’s hard getting a group of inebriates to chant multi-syllabic words. We ran into a slight snag at Osaki station. Although the Yamanote Line loops around Tokyo, not all its trains do. Some stop in Osaki and are switched out. We happened to be on one such train though we didn’t know it. We thought at first they were shutting down the train like they did with the Shinjuku Halloween Train last year.

Fortunately, it was a routine shutdown. We simply crossed over to the other side and grabbed another train going the same direction. Half of the group went over to the other platform and took a train in the direction we had just came no doubt surprising the police at the stations we had already left. Once again two Halloween Trains were on the loose and chaos reigned.

Another amusing note to the evening was the presence of a vocal foreign critic to our soiree. Buried beneath the press of passengers, photographers, and nerds, was our moral compass. Periodically we would hear over the din, the shrill nasally cry of “you shouldn’t be drinking on the train!” and “you shouldn’t be shouting!” even though he himself was shouting. I’m not sure what he got out of it but if it made him happy, good for him.

Our train party decided to exit at Ueno despite originally stating we would do so at Ikebukuro. This was to throw off any unwanted welcoming parties that might been waiting for us in the shadows outside the station. We received a celebrity sendoff by a mob of photographers. They formed a semi-circle and snapped away like we were rock stars. With the police protection, stalkers, and photographers and our larger-than-life behavior we kind of were rock stars.

Yamanote Halloween Train Paparazzi – “No Autographs!”

We finally got out of the station after having hundreds of photos taken of us by reporters and passerbys and celebrated out success (and survival) over a few cold ones. Scarily enough, we still had a few 2channel members tailing us. Two undercover cops were there though to make sure they didn’t try anything.

So another successful and highly interesting Yamanote Halloween Train went down in the annals of Tokyo lore. I cannot say truthfully if this was the proverbial “the” Tokyo Yamanote Halloween Train as another may still run in the near future but I can say this was definitely “A” Tokyo Yamanote Halloween Train and I was glad not to have missed it.

This is from the 2006 Yamanote Halloween Train event where a group of crazy Spanish-speaking Power Rangers who on the second loop of the party would jump out at the stations and do a little martial arts dance.

About Samurai Dave

Hey,

I’m a vagabond traveler currently teaching English in Japan. I like travel, history, festivals, culture, and good beer. I’ve been to about 30 countries though some no bigger than a kitchen table. I’ve run with the bulls of Pamplona, hiked the Inca Trail, got mugged in Mexico City, floated down the Nile in old boat, climbed the Great Pyramid of Egypt, got ripped at Oktoberfest, and rode the Tokyo Yamanote Halloween Party Train.

This blog is a chronicle of my adventures both current and past along with socio-political commentary and stories on cultural activities. I’ve also recently got into video editing so I’ll be posting more of my video tales here. Ronindave YouTube Site

2018 Update – I’ve neglected this site for several years after many of my images bit the dust because I was using image bank which apparently went bust and took a lot of my images with it. Will try to update those old blogs as I get to it.